Ontario teachers partly own the Maple Leafs and Michael Kors (what’s next, French Laundry?)

It’s no surprise that as far as pensions go, the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan is among the strongest—its portfolio presently includes $12.1 billion in investments, with Easton-Bell Sports, GNC, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and more. It was recently announced that Michael Kors was filing for an initial public offering of common stock, which revealed the OTPP as one of the company’s primary shareholders, at 6.9 per cent. As of December 2011, Silas Chou and Lawrence Stroll of Sportswear Holdings Ltd. and Michael Kors himself are the only primary selling shareholders with more of an investment, at 35.5 and 8.1 per cent respectively. There you have it: the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan has made a series of wise investments (Kors made $72.5 million on revenue of $803.3 million in the 2011 fiscal year), and its portfolio continues to grow. Now that it’s got a celebrity Project Runway judge under its belt, we assume that—because there is a dearth of food investment—celebrity chef Thomas Keller’s French Laundry is next (why invest in chef Massimo Capra when you can have the Thomas Keller?). But we’re not financial analysts, so it could just as easily be an investment in cheese products or paper towel.